Header Row on a Nested Table

Marty has a long table that spans about 7 pages in a document. He can add a header row to this table, and it repeats at the top of each page. He can nest a table inside a cell of this table and even add a header row to the nested table. However, the designated header row of the nested table will not appear above the nested table if it spans multiple pages. Marty wonders if there is a way to make the header row repeat on the nested table.

This inability to repeat header rows for nested tables is one of the limitations of Word. So, the short answer is no, there is no way to do what Marty is trying to do. This is because Word doesn't fully view the nested table as, well, a table. It views it as cell contents—an object placed inside a cell. Since it is simply cell contents, Word doesn't treat it like a full table.

A longer answer is that it may be possible to redesign what Marty is trying to do. The goal is to get rid of the nested table which will allow the header rows to function as desired.

As an example, in the cell where Marty normally has a nested table, he could say something similar to "See table X for more detail on this item." Then, after the current 7-page table, Marty would add a table for the detail and give that table a number ("X") so that the reader can easily find it. In table X, Marty can easily have repeating header rows because it is no longer nested within a larger table.

This is just one way that the redesign could be handled. It will take some trial and error to get the correct layout that meets the needs of the reader.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (8642) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Word in Microsoft 365.